In The Hall Of The Mountain Kings

FORD LAUNCHED THE MEGA HOMEGROWN R-SPEC MUSTANG AT BATHURST, SO WE CRASHED THE PARTY IN A CAMARO ZL1

- Cameron Kirby

5:47 PM, SATURDAY, October 12. It’s the day before the Bathurst 1000, and the entire Mount Panorama circuit is subdued with a tense silence.

The peace is shattered by a feral, mechanical howl. It’s Scott McLaughlin at the wheel of his DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang, its 485kW 5.0-litre naturally-aspirated race engine screaming like a bombing siren as it’s put to work for the most important solitary lap of the year, tearing down the pit straight with furious intent.

There’s a crackle as the 26-year-old Kiwi bangs down a couple of gears, before propelling himself up the mountain.

The silence returns. It’s only broken when McLaughlin reappears, precisely 2:03.3783 minutes later. He’s just completed the quickest lap by a Supercar in Mount Panorama history, and the team erupts into suitably joyous celebrations.

Sitting still and silent just behind the pit garage is a bright green Ford Mustang road car, at the head of the line of numerous other Mustangs. A quick glance would have you fooled that there isn’t anything particularly important about this car, but let your eyes linger and telltale signs begin to coalesce into the realization that this is something much more significant.

It might be the Ford Performance wheels that first catch your eye or the matte black decals that give a knowing wink to the old Boss models from the halcyon days of muscle cars. Perhaps you’ll first be drawn to the GT350-Esque rear wing or the slightly more hunkered-down stance.

What you are gazing at is the 2020 Ford Mustang R-Spec, and it’s incredibly exciting for a number of reasons, the main ones being its race-car-shaming 522kW/827Nm outputs, and the fact that it’s assembled at Ford’s Broadmeadows facilities, near where the mighty Falcon was being built just three years ago. Yes, you read that right: the Blue Oval is back to making cars in Australia.